HAARLEM, Netherlands — For eight innings this was a taut, one-run wrestling match. Then the Netherlands sent thirteen men to the plate in the top of the ninth, scored nine times, and turned a nervy night into a rout — beating Chinese Taipei 15-4 at Pim Mulier Stadion to climb to 2-1 at the 2026 Honkbalweek Haarlem. Delano Selassa came up twice in that ninth inning alone and drove in four of the nine; he finished with five RBI on the day.
It did not start that way. Chinese Taipei struck first when Chen Min-Sih homered to dead center in the bottom of the first, and Taipei still led 4-3 after six. What looked like a tense pitchers’ duel instead became a referendum on bullpen depth — and the Dutch had more of it.
A Bullpen Plan, Executed
The Netherlands never intended to ride one arm. Scott Prins opened, and four relievers followed: Jamdrick Cornelia, Jelle van der Lelie, winner Ingmar Hutzezon and closer Kevin Kelly, who slammed the door over the final two innings. Five pitchers, one plan.
“We knew from early that it was going to be a bullpen game, so the pitchers were prepared for one or two innings,” Shervyěn Newton said. “Just come in, do your job, fill up the zone and keep attacking the hitters.” It held: after Taipei’s three-run sixth, Dutch arms allowed nothing the rest of the way.
Newton Sets the Tone
Trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Newton flipped the game with one swing — a two-run homer to deep center that scored Darryl Collins and put the Netherlands ahead 2-1. The shortstop, who finished 2-for-5, framed it as exactly the jolt the lineup needed.
“It’s always good to contribute, even if it’s not a home run — just help the team win as much as I can defensively,” Newton said. “But hitting a home run is always good, especially to go ahead early and set the tone.” He also pointed to Collins, the table-setting spark in the seventh: “I play with him overseas, so I know how he likes to hit. In that big situation I told him before, ‘You’re going to come up.’ And he came in clutch for us.”
Collins delivered the go-ahead blow an inning later, a three-run double to left-center in the seventh that made it 6-4 and gave the Netherlands a lead it would never surrender.
Then the Ninth Got Away
What had been a one-run game came apart all at once. The Netherlands batted around and then some, stacking singles, walks and a hit-by-pitch into a nine-run avalanche as Taipei’s bullpen unraveled. Selassa bookended the inning — a two-run homer to left, then a two-run single later in the same frame — and Marnix Ruben, hitting from the nine-hole, kept the line moving with three of his three hits and three runs scored.
Selassa, who went 6-for-6 on the scoresheet with those five RBI, credited a mechanical tweak for the way he’s seeing the ball in Haarlem. “I made my leg kick shorter, so I see the ball better now,” he said. “That’s a great outcome right now.” He pointed to a slow start that the middle of the order eventually solved: the Dutch struggled early, he said, but “six, seven, eight, nine — it went with the plan.”
For Ruben, the value of the nine-hole is simple math. “I love hitting before the line. I’m in the nine-hole, and then we switch back to the top of the lineup, our best hitters,” he said. “So I take pride in getting on base, and then we can score some runs.” He leaned on small ball to do it — a bunt laid down on the manager’s call. “In the full season I probably don’t get the bunt sign there,” Ruben said. “But in international games it’s important. You see a lot of small ball in the MLB playoffs, too. If you don’t get the bunt down, it hurts you.”
One for the Standings
There was redemption in it, too. The Netherlands’ only loss here came a night earlier, a weather-shortened 2-0 defeat to Italy that ended after eight innings under darkening skies. “It felt like a cheap loss, because the game wasn’t done yet,” Ruben said. “So we wanted to come out with a win tonight — and just keep going through the tournament, getting to the semis.”
For Chinese Taipei (1-1), the bright spots were real even in defeat: Chen Min-Sih’s first-inning homer, and a 2-for-4 night from shortstop Lin Yu-Li, who doubled and drove in a run. But the Dutch lineup — stocked, as ever, with the Curaçaoan bloodlines that run straight through Dutch baseball — proved too deep over nine innings. And those same bloodlines are about to take center stage in another sport entirely: the Netherlands plays its World Cup Round of 32 match this week, where Curaçao and Aruba roots fill the Oranje the way they fill this dugout. As always, we’ll get right back to baseball.
Honkbalweek Haarlem 2026 — Schedule & Results
All games at Pim Mulier Stadion, Haarlem. Times listed CEST / ET. Every game streams live on Honkbalsoftbal.tv.
Friday, June 26
Netherlands 6, Globetrotters 1 — Final
Italy vs. Czechia — Postponed, moved to June 30
Saturday, June 27
Globetrotters 4, Czechia 3 — Final
Italy 2, Netherlands 0 — Final (8 inn., weather)
Sunday, June 28
Italy 3, Globetrotters 1 — Final
Netherlands 15, Chinese Taipei 4 — Final
Curaçao vs. Czechia — 19:30 / 1:30 p.m. ET
Monday, June 29
Chinese Taipei vs. Czechia — 15:00 / 9:00 a.m. ET
Curaçao vs. Italy — 19:30 / 1:30 p.m. ET
Tuesday, June 30
Italy vs. Czechia — 11:30 / 5:30 a.m. ET (makeup)
Globetrotters vs. Chinese Taipei — 15:00 / 9:00 a.m. ET
Netherlands vs. Curaçao — 19:30 / 1:30 p.m. ET
Wednesday, July 1
Italy vs. Chinese Taipei — 11:30 / 5:30 a.m. ET
Curaçao vs. Globetrotters — 15:00 / 9:00 a.m. ET
Czechia vs. Netherlands — 19:30 / 1:30 p.m. ET
Playoff Stage · July 2–4
Thu Jul 2: #3 vs. #4 (9 a.m. ET) · #1 vs. #2 (1:30 p.m. ET)
Fri Jul 3: #5 vs. #6 (9 a.m. ET) · elimination (1:30 p.m. ET)
Sat Jul 4: Old Star Game (6 a.m. ET) · Championship (9 a.m. ET)
For more international baseball, visit worldbaseball.com.
